Knife Sharpening Tools –
Part II
How to use a Whetstone.
Do to the size of a whetstone –
usually around 5 X 2 inches,
if you jus put it on a flat surface, it
will slip as you use the blade on it.
For the whetstone not to slip,
wrap a towel around a cutting board
and place the whetstone on it.
The friction with the towel will hold the
whetstone in its place.
Before you place the whetstone on
the towel, dip it in water for about
15 – 20 minutes.
You can dip it in oil, but that
usually make a mess and it is unnecessary.
The reason for dipping the
whetstone in water, is for the stone particles
that break when
sharpening the blade, not to get caught in the stone itself.
If that
happens, the whetstone will lose its sharpening ability.
So as we mentioned in Part I of
this article, we will start with a whetstone
with a grit of 220.
320/1000 Combination Whetstone
Place the stone on the towel, and
\your knife edge at a 21 – 23 degree
angle on the surface.
Hold the
handle
with one hand
and the blade with the other and slide
the knife forward, while
applying moderate pressure. Try to run all the blade
length with
each stroke to get an equal sharpening on the entire
blade.
Repeat the process at least ten
times on each side of the blade.
Make sure you move both sides of
the blade in the same direction.
When you are done with the course
whetstone, change to the finer
stone of 1000 grit and repeat the
process.
If you want you can go on to the
finer whetstones of higher grit.
When you are done continue
to the next part of the sharpening
process, which is the
Steel Rod Sharpener.
Follow these links to the other parts of
the article:
The Tools for sharpening your chef knife
The Whetstone
The Steel Rod Sharpener
The Leather Strap and Sharpening Tips
